My number one tip for vacationing with #Autistic children

I've never been a huge fan anyone telling anyone else what to do when it comes to an Autistic child. The reason being, every child is different and just because they may carry the same label, doesn't mean they have anything else in common. That being said, there is value in sharing one's personal experience because everyone can learn from the experience and decide if or when it applies to their particular situation. Having just spent ten days on vacation, four of which involved were simply driving, I learned a few things that worked for my three kids with Autism. At this point, I only want to focus on what I believe to be the most important thing I learned from this experience. This may or may not benefit your…

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Major Gavin Update: Clozapine change

You may remember that we began reducing the amount of Clozapine he's taking to manage the symptoms of Schizophrenia. Due to negative side effects that involve serious issues with his blood, we are reducing the dosage. Before we left for Florida, we worked with Dr. Reynolds to move Gavin from 600 mg/day to 500 mg/day. We didn't notice any Earth cracking changes and so once we returned from our trip, we made the next move. As of Monday morning, Gavin is only taking 400 mg/day. We haven't noticed anything at this point, that would make us want to return to the higher dose. That doesn't mean we aren't seeing concerning regression, because we are. The thing about the regression is that it's not likely tied to the Clozapine or the…

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Things can suck and still be positive

I didn't sleep well last night but thankfully, the boys had a good morning. The boys got to school on time and in a great mood. That's always a good way to start the day. 😀 My personal goal for today is to finish unpacking. We've been too tired to dig into that but I'm definitely going to do this today.

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Some interesting thoughts about #Autism and our vacation

Lizze is still pretty sick. She's been resting most of the day but still feels shitty. Hopefully she's going to start feeling better soon. The only interesting thing I need to catch you up on is that we had our first family therapy session since returning from Florida. The appointment was interesting because we focused on the trip. Dr. Pattie asked each of the boys to tell her what they loved the most about the trip and what they hated the most about the trip. I would have thought that everyone hated the drive there and back. That seemed like the obvious answer, but it wasn't. Gavin's the only one who said anything about the drive. The bottom line is, none of the kids really were able to answer that…

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The drive home from school felt like an eternity

The boys are home from school and both of them are unbelievably overwhelmed by their first day back. Elliott's freaking out over makeup work and Emmett's just freaking out. They had good days at school and were able to hold it together until they climbed into the car. The five minutes it took to get them home, felt more like an eternity. Emmett didn't have any makeup work because he did all of the work before he left. I tried to explain that to him becsuse he didn't understand why Elliott had work and he didn't. I explained that he's ahead of the rest of the class and so what he was working in before he left, is probably what the class was doing while he was gone. He couldn't…

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This guy hatched today

There are a ton of Ladybugs hatching on my front porch today. Seems kinda late in the season, but then again, I don't know when they normally hatch. This little guy is the first to climb out of his shell and I just felt compelled to snap his picture. ☺

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A bit of insight into my day

The boys made it to school this morning. They left the car happy and ready to take on the day. I'm grateful for that because I very much hate when I have to send them off to school on a rotten note. Our trip to the Cleveland Clinic was rescheduled because Lizze is sick. In fact, she's running a fever and that's very unusual for her. She's clearly miserable and spending up to three hours in the car wasn't in her best interest. Gavin still went to my parents house anyway and then we were able to go to sleep for awhile. Emmett's not been sleeping well and that means I'm not sleeping well either. He's having a bit of a rough time adjusting to being home at night. I…

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Our 1st full day home turned out to be a rough one

Poor Emmett had a rough evening that ended with his finger accidentally being shut in a door by Elliott. He's okay but it obviously hurt and I'm amazed that he fell asleep tonight. Lizze read him Harry Potter until he was out. ☺ This was how we ended our rather tiring day. I didn't realize how much the eighteen hour drive took out of me. I was pretty active yesterday but feel sorta rundown. I think that as the week goes on, things will improve. I'm feeling optimistic about that. One of the things I did begin doing was unpacking. We got home at 3 AM on Sunday morning and managed to get everything in the house, where it just sat until last night. I started going through all the…

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